A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

forwardnesse, called them hastings, soone ripe, soone rotten. 1887 S. SMILES Life & Labour vi. Very few prize boys and girls ...

1997 Washington Times 3 June B7 I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, ‘If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’ ...

With allusion to GALATIANS vi. 7 (AV) Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. a 900 CYNEWULF Christ in Anglo-Saxon Poe ...

through which a cask is filled or emptied and which is closed by a plug (the bung). 1642 G. TORRIANO Select Italian Proverbs 50 ...

1977 J. AIKEN Five-Minute Marriage x. I’ve given them a polish and they’ve come up real tip-top! Spare well and have to spend, I ...

United States President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) used this saying on a number of occasions, claiming it to be an old prove ...

Krebs took out his billfold. ‘Can you give me any assurance that you have useful information?’ ‘Nope.’.. ‘You never accumulate i ...

spend see also SPARE well and have to spend. spent see what is GOT over the Devil’s back is spent under his belly. sphere see a ...

spoiled see BETTER one house spoiled than two. spoken see many a TRUE word is spoken in jest. spoon see he who SUPS with the Dev ...

squeeze see an APPLE-PIE without some cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze. stable see because a MAN is born in a stable that ...

steady see FULL cup, steady hand; SLOW and steady wins the race. One man may STEAL a horse, while another may not look over a he ...

A STERN chase is a long chase A stern chase is one in which the pursuing ship follows directly in the wake of the pursued. 1823 ...

rhyme, ‘but words will never hurt me.’ One wonders whether the people on the receiving end.. would agree. 2001 Times 28 Dec. 20 ...

The more you STIR it the worse it stinks 1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. vi. The more we stur a tourde, the wours it wi ...

1935 H. SPRING Rachel Rosing xxiv. He knew that he did not love her. .. What else, then?.. He was not going to pretend that this ...

general support. 1980 G. BLAKISTON Woburn & Russells v. Bedford, who was against the death penalty for Stratford, sought to ...

strange see ADVERSITY makes strange bedfellows; POLITICS makes strange bedfellows. stranger see FACT is stranger than fiction; T ...

strength see UNION is strength. strengthen see as the DAY lengthens, so the cold strengthens. STRETCH your arm no further than y ...

‘twas best striking while the iron is hot, made this.. speech. 1771 SMOLLETT Humphry Clinker III. 242 If so be as how his regard ...

In this form, from a remark made by Napoleon to the Polish ambassador De Pradt (D. G. De Pradt Histoire de l’Ambassade.. (1815) ...